Acquiring contextualized concepts: a connectionist approach

Conceptual knowledge is acquired through recurrent experiences, by extracting statistical regularities at different levels of granularity. At a fine level, patterns of feature co-occurrence are categorized into objects. At a coarser level, patterns of concept co-occurrence are categorized into contexts. We present and test CONCAT, a connectionist model that simultaneously learns to categorize objects and contexts. The model contains two hierarchically organized CALM modules (Murre, Phaf, & Wolters, 1992). The first module, the Object Module, forms object representations based on co-occurrences between features. These representations are used as input for the second module, the Context Module, which categorizes contexts based on object co-occurrences. Feedback connections from the Context Module to the Object Module send activation from the active context to those objects that frequently occur within this context. We demonstrate that context feedback contributes to the successful categorization of objects, especially when bottom-up feature information is degraded or ambiguous.     

What Can be Done with an Egg? Creativity,Material Objects,and the Theory of Affordances

This article offers a reflection on the role of material objects in the creative process and explores the potential links between creativity and the theory of affordances (Gibson, 1986 ), conceptualized from a sociocultural perspective. From this standpoint, creativity can be defined as a process of perceiving, exploiting, and “generating” novel affordances during socially and materially situated activities. Illustrations are offered for each of the above from a research project investigating traditional Easter egg decoration activities in rural Romania. This brief case study exemplifies the discovery of existing action potentials, the generation of objects with novel affordances, and the transgression of conventional procedures, all resulting in creative forms of expression. In the end, some conclusions are drawn regarding the ways in which an affordance theory of creativity can enrich our understanding of the phenomenon and contribute to the development of a new program of research concerned with situated and distributed creative acts.     

Spatial aspects of olfactory experience

Abstract

Several theorists argue that one does not experience something as being at or coming from a distance or direction in olfaction. In contrast to this, I suggest that there can be a variety of spatial aspects of both synchronic and diachronic olfactory experiences, including spatial distance and direction. I emphasise, however, that these are not aspects of every olfactory experience. Thus, I suggest renouncing the widespread assumption there is a uniform account of the nature, including the spatial nature, of what is experienced in olfactory experience.     

Hylomorphism without forms? A critical notice of Simon Evnine’s Making Objects and Events

Abstract

Simon Evnine’s Making Objects and Events: A Hylomorphic Theory of Artifacts develops amorphic hylomorphism. I critically discuss three of its main themes. One theme is its attempt to do the work of form without forms. A second theme is the requirement that hylomorphs have ‘metabolisms at work’. A third theme is the use of artifacts as the paradigms for hylomorphs. I will raise some criticisms of each of these themes. Although the themes might at first appear disconnected, I believe the third underwrites the first two. So the criticisms of the third theme also bear on the rest.     

‘The newspaper reader’: On the meaning of concrete objects in a psychoanalytic treatment1

The author investigates the meaning of concrete objects in the psychoanalytic treatment of a severely disturbed patient for the development of his inner world and the analytic process. She includes a survey of relevant theoretical concepts with an emphasis on Winnicott and Bion. It is shown that the objects served basic defensive functions both within the analytic relationship and for the precarious intrapsychic state of the patient. The author describes the technical dealing that led to a structural change. From the comparison of the initial dream and a later dream, Mr N's inner development from total inclusion in the object to triadic reality of separated, repaired objects becomes discernible. The author shows how this progress was facilitated by his use of concrete objects as links between his psychotic and non‐psychotic parts, as well as by the specifi c way the analyst handled the paradoxical transference‐ countertransference. She also illustrates the thesis that the developmental steps described are crucial for the capability to digest psychic pain by symbolization instead of discharging it in a destructive‐violent way.     

优抚医院疗养对象的社会支持与幸福感的关系:心理健康的中介作用

考察优抚医院疗养对象的幸福感现状,探讨其心理健康、社会支持与幸福感的关系。采用老年人心理健康问卷、社会支持评定量表、纽芬兰纪念大学幸福度量表对103名平均年龄82.43岁的优抚医院疗养对象进行调查。结果表明:(1)优抚医院疗养对象的幸福感与全国常模无显著差异,心理健康水平与社会支持状况都显著低于对照组;(2)优抚医院疗养对象的社会支持、心理健康水平和幸福感各维度之间存在显著正相关;(3)心理健康在社会支持对幸福感的影响中起中介作用;心理健康的情绪体验维度在客观支持对幸福感的影响中起部分中介作用。     

Probability judgment in hierarchical learning: a conflict between predictiveness and coherence

Why are people's judgments incoherent under probability formats? Research in an associative learning paradigm suggests that after structured learning participants give judgments based on predictiveness rather than normative probability. This is because people's learning mechanisms attune to statistical contingencies in the environment, and they use these learned associations as a basis for subsequent probability judgments. We introduced a hierarchical structure into a simulated medical diagnosis task, setting up a conflict between predictiveness and coherence. Thus, a target symptom was more predictive of a subordinate disease than of its superordinate category, even though the latter included the former. Under a probability format participants tended to violate coherence and make ratings in line with predictiveness; under a frequency format they were more normative. These results are difficult to explain within a unitary model of inference, whether associative or frequency-based. In the light of this, and other findings in the judgment and learning literature, a dual-component model is proposed.     

物体类型与大脑投射位置对运动物体识别中再视效应的影响

本实验以单侧视野投射和似动技术研究再视效应与刺激类别、大脑投射半球的关系。实验采用完全的被试内设计 ,共有 1 6名被试参加了实验。实验结果分析表明 ,图形、英文字母和汉字三种刺激材料的命名反应时之间有显著差异。再视效应在三种刺激类型中均存在且无大小差异 ;由于刺激集较小 ,启动效应值较小 ,但在三种刺激类型之间却差异显著。这一结果证实了再视效应与启动效应在机制上的差异性。再视效应是物体特异性的 ,仅与物体的时空连续性有关 ;启动效应则与物体的具体特征和语意关系有关。由于本实验中采用实验范式的限制 ,大脑半球投射位置对再视效应和启动效应的影响较为复杂 ,在本文的总体讨论中 ,提出了目标刺激加工半球、启动、再视机制对反应时和启动、再视效应大小影响的综合矩阵 ,对实验结果进行了较为满意的解释 ,并进一步证实了再视机制的时空特征。     

Ethical attentiveness

Kantian virtue can be construed as a condition of an agent which secures adherence to the requirements of morality in the face of the ever-present possibility of inner conflict with counter-ethical considerations. This paper claims that this conception of virtue does not fit in well with one essential characteristic of the virtuous agent; that he or she is attentive to the well-being of others. After some preliminary remarks about virtue-related evaluations, the paper criticises the Kantian conception of virtue in the light of certain characteristics of ethical attentiveness. The paper concludes by developing a notion of ethical habituation which includes the training of attention.     

Identity,Indiscernibility, and Philosophical Claims

The concept of indiscernibility in a structure is analysed with the aim of emphasizing that in asserting that two objects are indiscernible, it is useful to consider these objects as members of (the domain of) a structure. A case for this usefulness is presented by examining the consequences of this view to the philosophical discussion on identity and indiscernibility in quantum theory.